Hugo Chavez admits he has cancer

I am not feeling well so I am going to stay with Uncle Fidel for a while.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has given a TV address and admitted he has had surgery to remove a cancerous tumour.

There has been much speculation about his health since he left Venezuela for Cuba three weeks ago for what officials said was an operation on a pelvic abscess.

Mr Chavez said he was determined to overcome his health battle and was now on the road to “full recovery”. Chavez was noticably thinner and his speech was much weaker.

His absence forced Venezuela to put off a regional meeting on Wednesday.

Standing behind a podium, the president said he had made the “fundamental error” of failing to look after himself. Some right wing observers would probably say that he made a fundimental error of failing to look after his country.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro had first told him he had looked unwell while he was on a state visit to Havana, he said.

Mr Chavez said he underwent a first operation on a pelvic abscess on 10 June, just as officials had informed the Venezuelan public.

But during his recuperation, tests had “confirmed the existence of a tumour with cancerous cells”, forcing him to undergo another operation. The extraction of the tumour had been “completely successful”, he said.

He added that his condition had been “evolving satisfactorily” while he received a “complementary treatment to combat the different types of cells found, and thereby continue on the path to my full recovery”.

“I deeply appreciate the demonstrations of solidarity by Venezuelans and other brotherly people,” he said. And sisterly people?